Elastic Time Archives - understand-culture

Fifteen Minutes

Indian Railways counts a train as on time if it reaches its last station within 15 minutes of the timetable. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee examined this in a report presented to the Lok Sabha on February 4, 2026. The Tribune quoted it: “The extra threshold of 15 minutes is too large.”

By that measure, punctuality was 90.48 percent in 2021-22 and 73.62 percent in 2023-24, ThePrint reported. The committee called the method misleading, because punctuality is measured only at the terminating station and delays on the way are not counted.

Good Governance Day

In January 1997 Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda laid the foundation stone of the Bogibeel bridge over the Brahmaputra in Assam. Construction began in 2002.

On December 25, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the bridge to the nation. The date was the birth anniversary of the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, observed as Good Governance Day.

Fifty-Six Years

On April 5, 1961, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada. On September 17, 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the dam to the nation.

Eighty-Four Seconds

On January 22, 2024, the idol of Ram Lalla was consecrated in the new temple at Ayodhya. The auspicious moment lasted 84 seconds, from 12:29:08 to 12:30:32. Pandit Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid of Kashi had fixed it.

Some parents planned births for the same day. At one hospital in Surat, doctors performed more than 22 cesarean deliveries, “all mothers choosing this date for their babies’ arrival.”

Prepone

Prepone: to move something to an earlier time than planned. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries list the word as Indian English.

Kal: yesterday, and also tomorrow. The Rekhta dictionary gives both meanings of the Hindi word, “the day that is coming” and “the day that has passed.”

Before Rahu Kaala

On March 6, 2026, Karnataka’s Chief Minister Siddaramaiah presented the state budget at 10:15 a.m. instead of 11 a.m. Rahu Kaala, a daily period of about ninety minutes that many regard as inauspicious, began at 10:30 that day.

He later said that his family and officials had advised him to avoid it. “I didn’t want to disappoint them or hurt their feelings,” he said. “This is the first time in my political career that I did so.” He added that he still does not believe in good or bad times.

Link by June 30

In 2017 the Indian government required taxpayers to link their PAN, the tax identity number, with Aadhaar, the national identity number. The deadlines in 2017 were July 31, August 31 and December 31. Then came March 31, 2018, and more dates after it. In 2021 the fact-checking site BoomLive called the latest move “the 11th such extension.”

In March 2023 the deadline moved once more, from March 31 to June 30, 2023. From July 1, 2023, the PAN of a taxpayer who had not linked it was to become inoperative.

Date After Date

Tareekh pe tareekh, tareekh pe tareekh, tareekh pe tareekh milti rahi hai, My Lord, lekin insaaf nahin mila. Date after date, date after date, date after date we were given, My Lord, but no justice. Sunny Deol says it as a lawyer in the courtroom scene of Damini (1993), directed by Rajkumar Santoshi.

Since July 2002, the Code of Civil Procedure has limited adjournments to three for each party during the hearing of a suit. The same rule, Order XVII, Rule 1, lets the court grant time “if sufficient cause is shown.”

Possession Date

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act of 2016 set up state authorities to hold builders to their delivery dates. Ten years later, a homebuyers’ association, FPCE, estimated that 27.6 lakh families still had money stuck in delayed projects, about 12.44 lakh crore rupees.

FPCE said: “RERA has not failed as a statute. Its enforcement has.”

Just Five Minutes

Bas paanch minute. Just five minutes. In its video series Desi D, The Quint jokes about Indian stretchable time and about people who “say they are just five minutes away” when they are not even ready.